"The computer world is like an intellectual Wild West, in which you can shoot anyone you wish with your ideas, if you're willing to risk the consequences. " --from Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham

We are living in the computer age, in a world increasingly designed and engineered by computer programmers and software designers, by people who call themselves hackers. Who are these people, what motivates them, and why should you care?

Consider these facts: Everything around us is turning into computers. Your typewriter is gone, replaced by a computer. Your phone has turned into a computer. So has your camera. Soon your TV will. Your car was not only designed on computers, but has more processing power in it than a room-sized mainframe did in 1970. Letters, encyclopedias, newspapers, and even your local store are being replaced by the Internet.

Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham, explains this world and the motivations of the people who occupy it. In clear, thoughtful prose that draws on illuminating historical examples, Graham takes readers on an unflinching exploration into what he calls "an intellectual Wild West."

The ideas discussed in this book will have a powerful and lasting impact on how we think, how we work, how we develop technology, and how we live. Topics include the importance of beauty in software design, how to make wealth, heresy and free speech, the programming language renaissance, the open-source movement, digital design, internet startups, and more.

Paul Graham

Paul Graham , designer of the new Arc language, was the creator of Yahoo Store, the first web-based application. His technique for spam filtering inspired most current filters. He has a PhD in Computer Science from Harvard and studied painting at RISD and the Accademia in Florence.

I got this book a while ago but did not start reading it until recently. It gets to be very addictive as the author touches some of the things that all of us may have encountered during, our lifetime. Mind you, I have just started the book, but I can already tell that it is definitely worth a read for the inquisitive mind. Very well written.

If you've never heard of Paul Graham, this book provides an excellent introduction. Paul is a hacker (in the original sense of the word), a technology innovator and a philosopher for the computer age. This book of essays runs the gamut from 'why nerds are unpopular' to fixing the spam problem to what makes a 'dream language'.

As Paul says in the intro, each chapter is independent of the others and you can skip around as you like. You'll get the general feel for Paul's ideas in all of the essays and some overlap is evident. I read the book straight through and enjoyed every chapter.

Paul is a master of the Lisp language and describes how some modern languages are heading in the direction of Lisp. To solve really tough problems in a less powerful language, you tend to end up writing a Lisp interpreter in that language. He also describes why everyone isn't using Lisp for every program they write.

If you are a hacker or hacker wannabe, this book offers excellent insight into the mind of a master. If you are a 'pointy-haired' manager, you'll get a better understanding of how truly talented programmers think. If you are involved in a startup company, this book describes several topics that might help give you a competitive edge.

Most of all, this is a really fun book that will earn a permanent space on your bookshelf.

The book does start slow, however as you read through it you start thinking to yourself, "yup", "uh-huh", "no way".....and the likes.

Over the past 4 years I am certain that many of us have felt the lack of creative spark. The last 4 years have basically beat us into submission. We hold back, stifle ourselves and as much as we hate it...regress a bit.

I have been through a whole slew of self-doubt, self-loathing and depression. I attributed this to choosing a career with which I could use the skills I grew up learing. I attributed this to the fact that though our knowledge and skill runs the nation and the world we are treated like information 'janitors'.

Paul has given me new thoughts. New ideas, and though I new that I was not alone this book helped to make me believe it. This book has lifted me up a bit, and I would recommend it to anyone who has not read Paul's works in the past.

Anyone who may have grown up with computers and technology as a hobby/passion. Anyone who sacrificed other activities as a child because they happened to be that one kid that 'knew' how to use the computers at school (and helped the instructor when needed).

I stumbled across Paul's website a year ago, and was severly shaken by his writing. His ideas have inspired me more than anything has in years. So much so, that I started writing my echoed thoughts in my O'Reilly blog.

His essay "Hackers and Painters" resonated with me because, coming from my music background, I had always felt that programming is like songwriting.

His essays about how the programming language shapes the way you think made me write about the glass ceiling I felt with new features I was learning.

But hands-down, his ideas on bottom-up programming have changed the entire way I look at all the programming I do.

THANK YOU Paul for the most inspiring essays I've read since Brian Eno. :-)